Yuri's Night, the global space party, will be celebrated at parties in over 180 locations in over 50 countries worldwide this April 12. The event celebrates the first human spaceflight made by Yuri Gagarin in 1961 and the first flight of the US Space Shuttle 20 years later.

Online PR News – 11-April-2014 – Santa Rosa, California – It has now been 53 years since Yuri Gagarin’s historic flight into space and 33 years since the first launch of the Space Shuttle. Scientists, artists, educators, and fans of space will be celebrating these milestones at over 180 parties and events in 50 countries on all 7 continents around the world this April 12. Dubbed "the World Space Party," Yuri’s Night is in its 14th year.

“The efforts put forward by our fans and by many events to host bigger and better parties each year is great!” said Ryan Kobrick, Executive Director of Yuri’s Night. “We're nearly at 200 events, and we expect to register many more by Saturday. This is going to be another fantastic year for Yuri's Night.”

Yuri’s Night events combine space-themed partying with education and outreach. These events can range from an all-night mix of techno and technology at a science museum, to a movie showing and stargazing at your local college, to a gathering of friends at a bar or barbecue. Most parties will be happening on April 12th, but many will take place on Friday April 11th and throughout the weekend. A full list of Yuri’s Night events is available at http://find.yurisnight.net.

The more than 180 parties and events being held this year include:

Los Angeles, California (http://la.yurisnight.net) - The flagship Yuri’s Night event, featuring former astronaut Ron Garan who celebrated the 50-year anniversary of Yuri's flight on the International Space Station, members of the Planetary Society, JPL rocket scientists, and space fans celebrating under the Space Shuttle Endeavour at the California Science Center.

Perth, Australia (http://www.scitech.org.au/) - Scitech will host an explanation of the Mars One mission and then a question and answer session with Mars One astronaut candidates from Australia. Students will explore the science, technology and challenges of space exploration and find out why the astronaut candidates are willing to leave their friends, families and Earth behind forever to make Mars their permanent home.

Stara Zagora, Bulgaria - Guests will watch the movie "Aeronautics" and another movie about animals in space. Children will be provided with fun space activities and attendees will be able to view "The space muzeum", an exhibit about the first Bulgarian cosmonaut, Georgi Ivanov.

Yuri’s Night parties are being held in such diverse locations as Concordia Station, Antarctica; Accra, Ghana; and online, where some fans will spend time searching for comets. Many events this year are also part of the Space Apps Challenge, a partner of Yuri's Night seeking to help people around the globe hack solutions for global challenges.

This year, Yuri's Night fans were given the opportunity through a partnership with collectSPACE.com to work with new people, venues, and cities to form new Yuri's Night events via the Yuri's Night Catalyst competition. Participants in this competition could win space flown items, autographed memorabilia, and many more great things courtesy of collectSPACE.com. Yuri's Night thanks collectSPACE and all of the many yearly sponsors of this event for their support.

“We couldn’t do this without all the hard work of our Global Executive Team, our partners, and especially the party planners from all over the world, who are sharing their love of space and enthusiasm for space exploration with their friends and neighbors.” said Kobrick. "Our team thanks everyone who has helped make Yuri's Night an amazing global celebration of spaceflight and hopes everyone has a great time on April 12!"

About Yuri’s Night

Yuri's Night is a global non-profit organization dedicated to hosting celebrations of humanity's past, present and future in space each April 12 in commemoration of Yuri Gagarin's first manned space flight and the inaugural launch of the Space Shuttle. In 2013, Yuri's Night celebrated 52 years of human spaceflight with 357 events in 57 countries on all seven continents, including Los Angeles, Tokyo, Moscow, and the Second Life virtual world. For more information, visit www.yurisnight.net.